Teacher education and inclusive education in Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to analyse the factors enabling or inhibiting the preparation of pre-service teachers for the practice of inclusive education in schools by Kazakhstani pedagogical/teacher training universities/colleges. A generic qualitative research study was conducted during which data were collected through one-on-one interviews with teacher educators and focus group interviews with pre-service teachers. Documentary analysis of participating pedagogical universities/colleges was done to corroborate data collected during interviews. Data were collected in five pre-service teacher training institutions of Kazakhstan situated in Nur-sultan, Pavlodar and Almaty cities. Three pedagogical universities and two colleges participated in the study. In each university/college, five teacher educators were interviewed, and a focus group of five students who were enrolled in a teacher training program. Data were analysed using inductive thematic content analysis. Among the main findings was that Kazakhstani pedagogical universities do not have a coherent and well-articulated strategy for pre-service teacher preparation for inclusion, i.e. development of inclusive programs, courses and curricula. The pre-service teacher practicum will require exposing pre-service teachers to dealing with an inclusive classroom setting. It is therefore recommended that teacher training institutions prioritise the training of teacher educators and develop specialised courses on inclusive education.

Keyword:

• Teacher
• teacher education
• inclusive teaching
• pre-service teacher

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Dr. Tsediso Michael Makoelle is the Vice Dean for Research at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education in Nur-sultan, Kazakhstan.

Dr. Valeriya Burmistrova is an associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Karaganda Medical University in Karaganda, Kazakhstan.